[Virtual] KIN KEEPERS Live Storytelling Present: First Generation & First Born Daughters
SPECIAL GUEST, Sydney Valerio just announced! Grab your tickets for our first virtual live reading on August 17th at 10AM ET! 🎟️
First Generation & First Born Daughters
Saturday, August 17 | 10AM EST
Grab your seats for our inaugural KIN KEEPERS Live Storytelling event on August 17th! Doors open at 10AM EST. Everyone is welcome to join! Our donation sliding scale is $5-$15 and goes towards funding our scholarship fund!
People who donate will have access to the full recording afterwards. This post will be updated with a link to the reading that paid subscribers will have access to.
OUR READERS
Sydney Valerio
Sydney Valerio (she/her) is a creative non-fiction mixed-genre writer, performer, and marathoner. She daylights as an educator & moonlights as a creative. In 2016 she wrote and performed “Matters” a one-woman show at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Her poetry is in several anthologies including the BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: Latinext. She is a 2020 Volcanista and a 2023 Kenyon Review Alumna. A 2019 BRIO Award-winning poet and a NYSEC 2022 Educator of Excellence, Sydney is a graduate of the MFA in Creative Writing program at CCNY. She is the project manager for the CCNY MFA Archives as Muse: a Harlem Storytelling project and the creator of the creative digital archive project: Perspective Matters-NYC Kid Who's Now a NYC Adult.
Bee Quammie
(she/her) is a multimedia storyteller who has written for publications like Men's Health, EBONY, Refinery29 and more. She has hosted Canadian radio shows and has been featured on Canadian shows like CBC’s The National and The Social. Bee’s debut book The Book of Possibilities will be published by Penguin Canada in 2025.Natalie DeAbreu
Natalie DeAbreu (she/her) is an artist/anthropologist, based in Queens, NYC researching rave culture, post-modern cyberpunk aesthetics, and the Caribbean connection. She is a graduate of both SCAD and The New School. With a background in copywriting and photography, Natalie aims to decolonize our perceptions surrounding technology and its creations.
Dera R. Williams
(she/her) inherited the role of griot while sitting on her grandparents’ veranda listening to the Porch Stories of their rural Arkansas community. This Cali girl with Southern roots has publications in anthologies and journals. Her childhood collection, In My Backyard is forthcoming Fall 2024 and she is completing a Great Migration novel.Iris “Yi Youn” Kim
(she/her) is a solutions-journalism reporter for NBC News based in L.A. Previously, she produced fiction podcasts at Wondery and international TV shows at HBO Max. She is a 2022 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow, a 2022 Center for Public Diplomacy U.S.-South Korea NextGen Creative Fellow, and a 2023 inaugural Gold House Journalism Fellow. She has written for NBC Asian America, Harper’s Bazaar, Salon, Electric Lit, Slate and TIME covering Asian American politics, identity and culture.
Iris is currently working on a book about the experiences of Korean American women navigating the legal system.
Lidia Bonilla
Lidia Bonilla (she/her) is of Cuban and Dominican descent and calls Brooklyn home. She is a speaker and wellness educator, helping people create joy after trauma and depression. She is a member of the Center for Fiction’s Writers Studio, has taken memoir writing workshops with Melissa Febos, and is a VONA fellow. When she is not avoiding writing, she can be found playing with other people’s dogs.
Lisa Ventura
(she/her) is a Washington Heights bred Black Dominican poet, essayist, performer, and author of ¿Con qué papel me envuelves la luna? Her work has been published and showcased by multiple literary platforms and arts organizations. She is a VONA 2022 alumni and a 2024 mentee for the Latinx-In-Publishing program. You can find her at www.lapoetarubi.com.Before you go, leave us some love by tapping the ❤️. It offers “social proof” and lets others know there’s something valuable here. Consider becoming a paid subscriber, or sharing on social media or Substack notes! The more people become paying subscribers, the more time I can devote to cultivating this beautiful community.
Wow this sounds amazing!
I am proud to be reading among such an accomplished group of First Born/Generation women.